Yeah I don't know either but I do. Don't plan to hunt with it just maybe shoot some straw bales or something. What's a good entry level bow to start with? I don't want junk but something that is fun to shoot. Will a couple hundred bucks get me there?

The Walking Dead. I store mine with my katana.

I think the big rush is still ongoing, kinda like the switch years ago to modern inline muzzle-loaders for deer hunting.

If you just plan to plink at the range or backyard there should be plenty for sale slightly used, half price.

I just took a look, plenty on fakebook marketplace.

They are fun. With arthritic shoulders I have great difficulty drawing and holding a compound bow, so a crossbow is a good alternative for me. I target shoot throughout the year with it to keep me accurate for hunting season. Years ago I was granted an exemption that allowed me to hunt the entirety of bow season here with a crossbow (it used to be allowed only the last two weeks of the season, the regs. recently were changed to allow crossbow hunting the entire bow season).

I have a Crosman CenterPoint "Tormentor". It cost me 200 bucks in 2019 but I got a deal as I have a friend that works for Crosman. It is deadly accurate. I see CenterPoint models online and think they're decent for a first crossbow.

Depending on the crossbow, shooting straw bales might not be a good idea.

I bought a TenPoint Turbo S1 last year. My daughter and I each took a deer with it last year.

Because they are awesome. Just a note, a straw bale will not stop a bolt. Somewhere in the foothills of the Wasatch front in Utah lies the first bolt I shot. It passed right through a tightly bound bale of straw that had stopped every arrow slung by our compound bows. Stack them three deep with a foot of separation between and you’ll be fine.

I recently helped a friend sight in his hunting crossbow. One of the bolts went clean through the thick archery target and halfway through the wooden fence behind it. Took a few minutes to extract it.

Crossbow target: https://www.sportsmans.com/hun...ipovTawaAjE-EALw_wcB

They make smaller bag type target for discharging a crossbow at the end of an (unsucessful) hunt.

I used a ten point with ten point scope when I hunted ,cost over a grand,did excellent work on Deer when I hunted,Had a crank attachment for the bolts.probably overkill for you tinkering ,bottom line for what I used it for it just worked.